Alpha FLTA0006 upper stage view
A camera on the second stage of Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket shows debris falling away and a damaged or missing nozzle shortly after stage separation April 29.

Firefly Aerospace said its most recent Alpha launch four months ago was lost because of structural failure linked to higher-than-normal heating during the vehicle’s ascent.

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Jeff Foust has more than a decade of experience writing about space policy, entrepreneurial ventures and regulatory affairs. In 2001, he established spacetoday.net to aggregate and summarize the day's space-related news stories. In 2003, he started The...